


The Hairdresser and the Bandit Queen

by Kiiratam



Series: A Brush With Beryl [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Background Relationships, F/F, F/M, Former Relationships, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25838251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Beryl goes the Rose-Xiao Long house to ask Taiyang to help train her. An unexpected person answers the door.Takes place between Volumes 5 and 6. Not canon-compliant, but not not canon-compliant, so far as we know. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long
Series: A Brush With Beryl [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878958
Comments: 14
Kudos: 39





	The Hairdresser and the Bandit Queen

This was so dumb. So incredibly dumb.

  
But Beryl knocked on the front door of the Rose-Xiao Long house anyway.

  
It was a nice autumn day, and Beryl had expected Taiyang to be out working in the garden, so she'd taken a turn around the house first. But he wasn't there, and it wasn't like they had a car anymore, so that was no help in telling if he was home.

  
...Though they did still have a trailer, sitting by one of the sheds. Maybe no one had wanted to buy that? Or Tai had just kept it so he didn't have to rent one if he needed it, or maybe...

  
Beryl decided this wasn't going anywhere, and refocused her attention. The gardens looked nice. There were the typical veggie plots (good to know their zucchini also ran rampant), but the beds next to the house were all planted with sunflowers.

  
Which just reminded Beryl of Yang.

  
But Yang wasn't why she was here, she knew Yang wasn't here, and wouldn't be back in who knows how long -

  
Beryl was here for herself. Because her hairdressing classes were wrapping up for the year, and she loved it, and she was having fun - but there was more to life than fun. Just recently, it had been the one year anniversary of the Fall of Beacon. And Beacon was still shut down, still a hazard.

  
Maybe Beryl wasn't good enough to be a real Huntress, but she could still fight. She could help, pick up some guard duty at the Beacon campus, give the experts a little time to rest.

  
But Beryl didn't want to die. And her fighting skills were definitely rusty. She'd managed to keep her general fitness level from slipping - lots of running, mostly - so her endurance was good, she hadn't really lost muscle - but she was absolutely out of practice. Self-consciously, she adjusted her weapon belt, and caressed Dragon Tail's hilts.

  
And Taiyang had shown her the basics of fighting in the first place, and he'd gotten Yang back into fighting fit after a debilitating injury, and he really seemed to enjoy teaching -

  
\- And Beryl knew her mom wouldn't mind an excuse to talk to him. As little as Beryl wanted to think about the particulars, she also knew her mom was lonely.

  
The door swung open, and Beryl really hoped she could convince Taiyang -

  
\- That was _not_ Taiyang.

  
It wasn't Yang either, but Beryl had to take a second look to make sure that Yang hadn't dyed her hair, and picked up twenty years or so, because the woman who answered the door definitely had Yang's face. And her angry, blood red eyes.

  
"Who are you?" She didn't have Yang's voice either - harsher, more demanding.

  
"Me?" Unfortunately, whoever she was, she still looked enough like Yang to trip the dumb idiot section of Beryl's brain. "Who are _you_?"

  
"Tch." The woman looked Beryl over. "I thought he had better taste."

  
Zwei squeezed past the woman's legs and over the threshold, and barked happily up at Beryl.

  
"Hi, Zwei!" Beryl crouched down to play with his cute cheeks and scratch him behind the ears. At least _someone_ was happy to see her.

  
"Great, the mutt likes you."

  
Beryl glared up at Taiyang's houseguest. Her goodwill at Yang's face was rapidly evaporating, but she could at least try to be civil. "I'm Beryl. I came by to talk to Ta- Mr. Xiao Long."

  
"Talk. Right."

  
After giving Zwei a few more pets, Beryl straightened up. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. You are?"

  
"Unimpressed."

  
It occurred to Beryl that she still hadn't seen this woman's hands. She'd kept them behind the door or the frame. And that fact was starting to set Beryl on edge. Did she have a weapon ready? She was certainly acting unfriendly enough that violence was a possibility.

  
But Beryl had come all the way out here, and she wasn't going to just leave without talking to Taiyang. Or at least learning when he was going to come back. What if this mystery woman had hurt him, or was squatting in his house, or - her hands brushed the hilts of her swords.

  
The woman's eyes tightened, and Zwei let out a loud growl, hackles raised, facing the woman. Defending Beryl.

  
Zwei didn't like her. That was pretty damning. Zwei liked everyone.

  
Her voice flat, the woman said, "I think you should go." Her eyes looked just like Yang's, in the berserk throes of her Semblance.

  
It took a few tries, but Beryl managed to say, "Where's Mr. Xiao Long?" _Her_ tone wasn't going to scare anyone.

  
The woman snorted. " _That's_ what you're worried about? You think I came here, killed him, and decided to sit around on his couch?" She shook her head. "I guess he likes them young and dumb now."

  
Beryl blinked a few times, processing. "Wait, you thought - me and Taiyang - I'm the same age as his daughter!"

  
"Which one?"

  
"Yang. Why does it matter?" It was only two years.

  
The woman gave Beryl another appraising look. "Are you her friend?"

  
"Who, Yang's?" What was she even getting at? "Yes?"

  
"Oh, I see. You were the idiot she kept around."

  
"What?" Had Yang really said that? Or thought it? _Forrest_ was the idiot of the group, she'd thought they all agreed on that. Including Forrest.

  
"There's no shame in it. Tai was our idiot. So long as you pull your weight."

  
Beryl was completely lost. She glanced down at Zwei, who had settled down between them, stretched over the threshold. "Can you _please_ just tell me when Taiyang's going to be back?"

  
She shrugged. "He went to town."

  
That was the most helpful she'd been yet. " _Thank you_." Maybe with the proper encouragement, she wouldn't be such a raging jerk. Beryl reached down to give Zwei a few pats. She'd see if she could catch Taiyang in town. Or on the road. Anywhere but here.

  
"Why do you need him?"

  
Beryl looked up. That had actually sounded like an actual question, asked by a person who wasn't Yang-at-her-absolute-worst-but-all-the-time. Beryl's curiosity got the better of her, and she answered, "Combat training."

  
The woman snorted. "He's too soft to really push you."

  
"He's a good teacher!"

  
"Prove it. Fight me." She nudged the door all the way open with her foot, and brought her scabbarded sword into sight. "I'll even let Tai have an advantage, and fight you unarmed."

  
Zwei whined and Beryl completely agreed. But...

  
"If I win, will you tell me who you are?"

  
The woman laughed, and there actually seemed to be some genuine amusement there. "If you lose slowly enough, I'll tell you."

* * *

  
Beryl had given up trying to strike back. She'd practically given up trying to block. All she could really manage was to get hurt less.

  
Her Aura was gone, but the woman hadn't stopped.

  
The kick aimed to the side of her knee - mostly absorbed by her thigh. It stung, but she could still walk.

  
Her nose had been flattened by a knuckle-punch - but it hadn't turned into an eye gouge, because Beryl had gotten distance again.

  
She managed to get into a cinch, trying to lessen the blows - and had received heavy elbow strikes over her shoulders and back. But her collarbone wasn't broken.

  
That cinch had turned even more against her, with the woman trying to cave in Beryl's ribcage with her knees. Beryl had managed to guard her solar plexus, and break free, stumbling away, trying to raise her hands, too winded to beg for a stop -

  
Zwei was barking wildly, and Beryl just barely managed to get her hand up, getting it caught next to her throat, as the woman wrapped an arm around her neck.

  
Everything was starting to echo oddly, the sounds outside bouncing off of the blood pounding in her ears, her desperate attempts to draw air, Zwei sounded more and more distant -

  
"Raven!"

  
The pressure on her throat vanished, and Beryl collapsed to the ground, coughing. The clover was soft on her cheek, and Zwei kisses bathed the other.

  
Everything hurt. Even those three places that hadn't gotten hit hurt sympathetically.

  
A warm hand on her shoulder. A gentle voice. Taiyang. "Beryl. Can you walk?"

  
She tried to talk, and coughed more. Once that was through, she just shook her head. She tried to look up at Taiyang, but the sky was too big, too bright.

  
There was more talking. Yelling.

  
Zwei pushed his head under her hand. Beryl gave him a few pats. He always liked that.

  
A door slammed.

  
Beryl managed to uncurl herself, get to her hands and knees. She had to cough more after that, before she could raise her head.

  
Hands on her shoulders again. "Come on, Beryl, up." Taiyang appeared in front of her, and helped her to her feet. He took her chin and turned her face back and forth. "Anything broken?" Delicately, he stretched out her arms, running his hands down them.

  
"Don't think so." Her voice felt thick.

  
"Good." Taiyang handed her a water bottle. "Slowly," he warned.

  
It hurt to swallow. Over and above the elevated general hurt. She took a few swallows, and handed the bottle back.

  
"Zwei and I are going to take you back home, okay?"

  
"Okay."

  
"Let me know if you need a break. But the sooner we get there, the sooner you can lie down."

  
"Okay."

* * *

  
By the time they turned down Beryl's lane, she felt she could talk. Physically, at least.

  
But once her mom saw her, she knew she wasn't going to be able to get a word in, so it was now or never.

  
"Raven?"

  
Still supporting her shoulder, but not having to mostly carry her anymore, Taiyang said, "Your sparring partner."

  
"Who is she?"

  
"Professor Branwen's sister. Yang's mother. My ex-wife." He said them with increasing levels of anger.

  
"Why-"

  
"Because she's good at hurting people. She saw an opportunity. Why did you come to my house?"

  
Taiyang never got angry. Which was why Yang's anger was so - she acted like Taiyang most of the time, bright and funny - but she got angry and she was a whole different person. Her mother, apparently.

  
"Beryl?"

  
She snapped back to the present. "Beacon."

  
"It's gone, Beryl."

  
"I know. I know I can't go. I didn't make the cut." She shook her head, and instantly regretted it. "But I can still fight a bit. I wanted to help. Volunteer militia, or something."

  
"You wanted to help." Taiyang sighed in the same way her mother did, when she was trying to be supportive. Emphasis on _trying_. "You wanted my help."

  
"Yeah. Yang healed up. She got good enough to leave again." Beryl wanted to swallow, but she didn't want to do it with a dry throat. "Water?"

  
Taiyang handed her the bottle, and waited for her to drink.

  
"I miss Yang." It felt good to actually say that to someone. She'd probably regret it later. "We didn't get to train together. I miss her smile, and her jokes, and her hair, and-" Her vision was getting blurry. "- and how she wouldn't let me win, but she'd go back and help me figure out what I did wrong. I did a lot wrong." She was trying not to sob. "Sometimes I'd do stupid things on purpose, so we could spend more time together."

  
She heard Zwei whine, and she dropped - fell, really - to the dirt of the road to give him a hug. He started licking the tears off of her face, and she squeezed Yang's dog tightly.

  
Beryl lost all sense of time, but eventually her sobbing had stopped, and Zwei was sitting in her lap, and Taiyang was handing her the water bottle again.

  
She took a few more cautious sips. "Can you train me?"

  
"Yes." He paused. "Why were you fighting Raven?"

  
Beryl tried to remember. It had very quickly become irrelevant. "I made stupid decisions."

  
"I recommend not doing that."

  
Now _that_ was a Yang comment. Beryl smiled, and that, amazingly, didn't hurt. She struggled to her feet, and that definitely hurt.

  
"Let's get you home. I'll come by next week and we can start training."

  
Beryl shook her head. "Tomorrow."

  
"No. You're tough, but pushing yourself too hard isn't going to help." Taiyang offered her his shoulder, but Beryl just started walking towards home. He matched her pace. Painfully slow.

  
...He might have a point.

  
"Day after tomorrow." Beryl offered. 

  
"How about the day after that?"

  
Beryl caught herself as she stumbled, managing to stay upright. Barely. Zwei gave her a concerned look. 

  
"Okay."

* * *

  
Her mother reacted about as badly as Beryl had expected. She was outside, with her floppy sunhat, working in the garden. Zwei barked, and she looked up. Seeing Taiyang first, she started to smile - and then she noticed Beryl's injuries. Not quite screaming Beryl's name, she threw herself to her feet and dashed closer, trampling the flower bed she'd been working on.

  
Taiyang held out a hand. "Your daughter is going to be okay, but she's all banged up. Gently."

  
"Gently?! What happened?! Did you-"

  
Before her mom could say anything she'd regret, Beryl said. "Tai saved me. Fight I couldn't win."

  
"Beryl..." Her mother reached out to stroke the side of her face.

  
Wincing, Beryl managed to put up with it.

  
"She should lie down." Taiyang was using his teacher voice. Gentle, but commanding.

  
"Oh! Yes, you're right - of course you're right." Her mother started for the front door. "Follow me."

  
The front steps seemed a lot taller than usual, but leaning on Tai, Beryl managed to get up them, and through the front door that her mom was holding open. Which just left getting down the hallway - her mom squeezed past them to open the door to Beryl's bedroom - and through that door.

  
Why was this so much harder than the miles she'd already walked? It must just be being around her mother, who looked frantic, even if she wasn't saying anything. But her mouth was moving? 

  
Beryl blinked a few times, but it got harder and harder to keep her eyes open, and what was the point when all the lights were going off and it was getting dark?

  
She was being carried. That seemed special. Beryl looked up, and saw blonde hair, and there was only one blonde she wanted to be carried by.

  
Yang wouldn't let anything happen to her.

  
Beryl felt herself being gently laid in bed. And she was too tired to even say anything to Yang. But Yang would forgive her. She was the best.

* * *

  
"So why did you change your mind?" Beryl finished her stroke, and paused. "I mean, not that I'm complaining." She went back to brushing Yang's hair.

  
Yang shrugged. "I mean, people change." She shifted a bit, pressing back against Beryl's legs.

  
"Yeah, you said that." And her stupid mouth kept talking. "How's your friend? Your old partner, I mean." Even when everything was going well, Beryl just had to mess it up.

  
But Yang just took a deep breath, held it, and let it out, doing the breathing trick she'd learned at Beacon. "She changed too. I haven't seen her."

  
"Thanks for coming back."

  
"Thanks for being here."

  
Beryl sighed happily, and kept brushing her friend's hair.

  
Yang stretched out her arms, but kept her head nice and stable. "Want to go on a run later?"

  
"Sure. I could use the exercise."

  
"And the chance to stare at my butt."

  
Beryl went bright red, confident that Yang wasn't going to turn around to look at her face, and equally confident that Yang knew _exactly_ what kind of reaction she'd gotten. She stammered, "I, I mean, you _are_ faster than me. I try to catch up."

  
Yang snorted. "Sounds like I need to give you some _real_ encouragement to catch me."

  
And Beryl could already hear the innuendoes turning - what would it be? Kisses? Strongly implied oral sex?

  
"I'll let you braid my hair if you pass me."

  
" _SoldNoTakebacks_."

  
"Yeah, that's what I thought."

* * *

  
Beryl opened her eyes. Her room was dark, apart from a glimmer of starlight through the window. She reached out, finding her bedside lamp after a bit of groping, and switched it on.

  
Her hairbrush didn't have any golden-blonde hair in it. 

  
_Only a dream. Always only a dream._

  
What wasn't a dream was how much she ached. Beryl pushed herself up to a sitting position, biting her lip to keep her groan in. Her Aura was back, and everything was healing. But she was tender and achy.

  
And hungry. Really hungry. And thirsty.

  
The clothes she had been wearing were gone. Her mom had probably taken them. Beryl wasn't exactly confident that all the blood would wash out. She felt her nose, delicately pushing on one side, then the other. Tender, but not broken. Though from all the blood...

  
It _felt_ like two black eyes. She avoided her bedroom mirror, and heaved herself to her feet.

  
_Owwwww._

  
_What had Raven been trying to prove, anyway?_ Beryl tried to focus on that question, because it was less painful than doing an injury inventory.

  
The outcome had never been in doubt - Beryl had figured that out real quickly. Raven had been faster, stronger, smarter...

  
Once, a bunch of Signal kids were out on a field-trip, and a pair of Ursai had charged out of the woods at them. Taiyang and Professor Branwen had been way on the other side of the clearing, but they had closed the distance and killed the Grimm before Beryl or any of the kids could do more than ready their weapons.

  
Honestly, Beryl was surprised she'd lasted as long as she had. But Raven hadn't lied about giving Beryl an advantage - fighting with a long katana, like Raven had, wasn't very similar to unarmed fighting. Whereas Beryl had more or less been able to directly apply her unarmed training to fighting with Dragon's Tail.

  
Beryl looked for her weapon. Dragon's Tail was hanging right next to the door, where she was supposed to be. The last thing she'd remembered, she'd taken her weapon belt off before the match. Taiyang must have grabbed it. She bent closer, and noticed some light teeth marks in the leather belt. Or Zwei had.

  
Her stomach growled.

  
Brushing her hand over the grips of her weapon, Beryl opened her door. She staggered slowly down the hallway, keeping to the center so she didn't knock any her mom's paintings down.

  
_Just a late night snack, then back to bed._

  
_...What day is it? How long did I sleep?_

  
She didn't have her scroll. But Beryl remembered seeing it on her nightstand. She'd check before she fell back to sleep.

  
In the kitchen, Beryl grabbed an apple and started munching on it. Something so she wouldn't die as she checked the fridge.

  
Two and a half containers of leftovers later, Beryl actually felt human again. A human who had been playing in traffic, but a human.

  
Her mom emerged from the hallway, in her fleecy nightgown. "Beryl?" Her voice shook.

  
Putting her half-eaten bowl of chili aside, Beryl pulled herself to her feet and crossed the kitchen to hug her mother."Hi, mom."

  
Clinging to her, her mom started quietly crying, stifling her sobs with Beryl's shoulder.

  
This was new, and Beryl didn't like it. She stroked her mother's hair, and tried not wince as her bruises were squeezed. "It's okay, mom. I'm just a little beat up."

  
More beat up than she'd ever been, and this was _after_ she'd slept for gods-knew-how-long, with her Aura busy patching her up.

  
"What - what _happened_?" Her mother half-sobbed.

  
"I picked a fight with someone better than me." Which was true enough, Beryl figured. "I'm going to start training with Taiyang again. I'll get better."

  
Her mother was still crying. Beryl found herself in the exceptionally awkward position of trying to comfort her own mother, whispering soothing nothings, ordering her mother's hair, getting her tissues and sitting in the chair next to her at the kitchen table...

  
The fatigue was starting to hit Beryl again. She put her chili away, and threw her mom's stack of used tissues away, and washed her hands. Carefully. She wasn't sure how she'd missed it, but apparently one of her thumbs had been dislocated? Or close to it - that was some very vivid bruising.

  
She reached out to brush her mother's hair behind her ear. "Mom? I need to go back to sleep. Will you be okay?"

  
Her mom swallowed and let out a long shuttering breath. "Is this going to happen again?"

  
"Gods, I hope not." Beryl shook her head a tiny bit - about all she wanted to risk. "That's why I'm starting training."

  
"But you didn't make the Beacon entrance exam! Why? Why risk it? Leave it to the experts!"

  
"Mom..." Beryl took a deep breath. "Everything is messed up right now. There are a lot more reported Grimm attacks, the CCTS is still down... there's too much. I'm not, like, Yang-good, but I have an Aura, and Dragon's Tail, and I can help. I need to help." She forced a laugh. "The Grimm don't need haircuts."

  
That got a quick smile, at least.

  
"I can talk to Taiyang? See if he has any advice? Yang was hurt a lot worse than I was, so he's probably gone through the same thing you are." If Beryl had judged right, at least.

  
"All right." Her mom reached out to cup Beryl's cheek. "You're a good daughter."

  
To put the lie to _that_ , Beryl said, "I'm going to go sleep for another ten hours or so, okay?"

  
"Okay."

  
Beryl made it back to bed without falling over, or knocking anything over, but it was a bit of a near thing. She managed to switch her bedside lamp off - and remembered that she had been going to check her scroll.

  
_Tomorrow._

  
_Heal up. Start training._

  
_Help._


End file.
